'Hero' Portsmouth boxer ran into burning Southsea apartment building to wake up sleeping residents

Boxer Michael Trotman was training across the road near Burgoyne Gardens with his boxing coach when he saw smoke pouring from Solent Apartments in South Parade, Southsea on Saturday, March 11.

He decided to enter the smoke-filled building to ensure that everyone inside woke up and got away from the danger.

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Michael said: ‘I was training over there with my coach and we saw the smoke coming out and it was really dark and I thought ‘that’s not good’. Someone else phoned the fire service and I ran over here and there were a couple of people outside.

‘I went into the one that was on fire and ran upstairs and knocked on all the doors at the top. Then I came back out here and I knocked on all these doors and came out the back.

‘It was really smokey in the basement. As we walked out the back, the smoke was literally billowing in our faces and the fire was out of the window.’

Residents of the South Parade flats thanked Michael for his bravery as firefighters tackled the blaze. After alerting as many people as he could to the fire, Michael continued his training session before returning to the scene to check that everybody was okay.

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Crew manager Dave Burt, from Southsea Fire Station, said the cause of the fire has not been identified. Firefighters from Southsea, Cosham, Havant and Portchester all attended.